Tom Tunguz

APRIL 18, 2023

Every startup needs an AI strategy - not just for fundraising or press appeal. How quickly users switch from one product to another depends on the category of software : the switching costs, the pain associated with a lack of the feature, or the loss in productivity without it. User expectations have changed.

AI 242

AI Artificial Intelligence Strategy Startup 242

SaaStr

JANUARY 7, 2024

I think of the apps I rely on in four different categories: reporting, collaboration, analytics, and management. Joining the Amplitude team in 2022, Tifenn leads the global marketing strategy and oversees the company’s corporate marketing, product marketing, and revenue marketing teams. What’s your core stack of apps today?

Social Media 246

Social Media AI Technology Branding 246

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

They don’t have the bandwidth to support five sub-partners in their category. Look at the most important categories that surround your category. It’s a defensible strategy to create differentiation when you and that partner build out specific integrations. Pick your strategies, invest in them, and start tiering.

AWS 199

AWS Scale Sales Hiring Marketing 199

SaaStr

AUGUST 27, 2023

6Sense to implement our Account Based strategy with our sales #3. Sydney Sloan has more than 25 years of delivering transformative growth in high-tech companies by envisioning and implementing holistic marketing plans and impactful go-to-market strategies, M&A integrations, and product launches.

compliance 208

compliance Engagement Strategy Marketing 208

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 1, 2023

Workstreams within SaaS companies are specialized : content marketing, a valuable GTM strategy for many businesses, represents a low-single digit percentage of the employee population. Startups should focus on AI for Execs (perhaps why legal has been a heavily funded category) & AI for common workstreams (code autocompletion).

AI 321

AI Startup Scale Headcount 321

SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2024

By observing these segments, you can glean lessons if you’re building in the same category. Within these categories, you have platforms, infrastructure, and applications. Microsoft Google Meta Each is playing a different strategy. Microsoft is a master class in strategy for us. That enabled LLMs built to leverage GenAI.

Generative AI 232

Generative AI Outsourcing Services AI Software Review 232

SaaStr

MAY 9, 2023

One of the most essential things SaaS founders need to get right is their sales strategy. While marketing might focus on both the end and the means as a part of a strategy, a seller needs to emphasize how to solve a customer pain point. 1 You Need to Get Out There And Sell Sometimes, the best way to learn is by doing.

Sales 246

Sales B2B Consulting Investment 246

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 20, 2020

Here’s how we generally think: If you are #1 in your category and growing nicely, then great, we’ll keep building on that lead. If you are #2 in your category and growing nicely, then great, you’re scrappier. First, you want to achieve Dominant Strategy as Quickly as Possible and Not Let Your Competitor Achieve It.

SaaS 336

SaaS Scale Healthcare SMB 336

The Daily Egg

MARCH 20, 2021

If you fall in this category, you may be missing out on one of the best customer outreach channels. Cold emailing may be an old concept, but it is still instrumental when used as part of a larger prospecting strategy. Many marketers and sales reps think of spam any time cold emailing comes up. Considering […].

Strategy 320

Strategy Sales Marketing 320

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 15, 2021

Suppose you’ve started a company that’s creating a category. Do you spend aggressively to create the category or conserve capital, knowing education will take time? New categories form at unpredictable rates because each market has distinct nuances. But frugality a winning strategy in any of those spaces?

Strategy 256

Strategy Banking Finance Education 256

SaaStr

JUNE 14, 2023

We’ll explore key aspects such as building customer relationships based on trust and honest feedback, defining company culture amid rapid growth, and hiring strategies that prioritize team chemistry over expertise. This approach not only helps build trust but also encourages customers to challenge your company when needed.

Scale 195

Scale Artificial Intelligence Technical Review Software Review 195

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

Question #3: What Is A Content Strategy For SaaS? SaaStr’s content marketing strategy includes: Holding a customer webinar every week. Whether you’re just starting out in SaaS or have a successful SaaS startup, founders and startup teams can learn a lot from those who have found success in the industry through its ups and downs.

Outsourcing Services 200

Outsourcing Services Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting 200

SaaStr

JANUARY 9, 2023

ClickUp has grown and found its voice in an industry of category players, with a staggering six million users within five years. Flip the script by proactively tracking customer’s journey, segmenting them into different categories with a tailored message for each category. Tactic #5: Uplevel your social strategy.

Social Media 195

Social Media B2C Marketing B2B 195

SaaStr

MARCH 2, 2022

Category creation takes persistence and patience. It is vital to understand why you are launching a category creation initiative. Disrupting existing categories can be difficult, so you need to be intentional with your strategy. Do not try to create a category because it’s trendy. Do not be afraid to pivot.

Outsourcing Services 196

Outsourcing Services Scale Outsourced Development Marketing 196

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 8, 2022

This has always worked in some categories since the dawn of the Web. Use content or other strategies to build a high quality list. Buyers attend the #1 events in each category, at a minimum. Ways to get the word out: Press and PR. Getting written up in TechCrunch doesn’t do what it once did, but press and PR still helps.

Marketing 277

Marketing Scale Content Marketing Consulting 277

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 31, 2023

A few notes on this analysis: First, not all software categories will grow 15%. But the dominant strategy has been to hire more reps while maintaining quotas rather than increasing quotas meaningfully - perhaps an artifact of the easy money era. Some will grow faster than others; others may contract. Third, AI efficiency is subjective.

Headcount 201

Headcount Sales Hiring AI Cloud 201

User Pilot

MARCH 27, 2024

That said, let’s explore some secondary navigation examples, the role of secondary navigation in UX, the key differences between primary and secondary navigation, and share some strategies to aid your navigation. HubSpot's combined navigation allows detailed content exploration within major categories through a hierarchical structure.

User Experience 104

User Experience Pricing Engagement Mobile 104

SaaStr

MARCH 22, 2023

The RPA category promises cost savings, and it seems to be resonating today. A real land-and-expand strategy, or at least, increase utilization dramatically over time strategy. #7. So few Cloud software companies have had a more interesting history than UiPath. It took them a full 10 years to get to $1m in ARR (!). And UiPath?

Scale 231

Scale Cloud Scaling Churn 231

Kellblog

AUGUST 27, 2022

In extreme distillation, Play Bigger argues: Category kings (companies who typically define and then own categories in the minds of buyers) are worth a whole lot more than runner-ups. Therefore you should be a category king. “I’m an CMO and it’s 2018. Of course I’ve read Play Bigger. So, off you go.

Strategy 136

Strategy Marketing Startup Customer Success 136

Intercom, Inc.

SEPTEMBER 15, 2021

In this era of ever-increasing digital disruption and innovation, category design can be the ultimate business strategy for brands wishing to stand out from the crowd. The book aims to help companies apply category design to open new markets and create new demand. and the Making of IBM , and The Two-Second Advantage.

Technical Review 205

Technical Review Sales Hiring Innovation Systems Review 205

SaaStr

AUGUST 30, 2023

Instead of trying to use a clunky, forms-based search box, you can now have a conversation with Monty to discover the best app, even if you don’t know the best category (there are over 2,000 on G2). People can communicate as humans do, and AI uses those words and matches them to a business problem regardless of category.

AI Search 188

AI Search AI ChatGPT Software Review 188

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 3, 2023

Historically, SaaS investors tended to look for the undisputed top dog competitor in every category, and would pour huge amounts of money into those companies. Now founders must prove not that they will be the only leader in the category, but that they can differentiate enough to win and yield incredible growth.

Venture Capital 184

Venture Capital Sales Hiring Social Media Healthcare 184

SaaStr

MARCH 3, 2023

There are two types of SaaS companies in the world: those that are category creators and the challengers of incumbent technology. Pugh’s strategy is simple, albeit not always easy: Recruitment — how to hire the best talent to scale your sales organization. It doesn’t mean you don’t need strategy, but without culture, it’s useless.

Scale 212

Scale Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scaling 212

SaaStr

JUNE 29, 2023

As a result, we’re seeing SaaS companies develop new pricing strategies.” Tailor your sales strategies to loop in the CFO as early in the process as possible and demonstrate the business case for your solution. Oates explains, “Software that supports critical infrastructure will continue to be purchased and renewed, year-over-year.”

VP of Engineering 231

VP of Engineering Trends Cybersecurity Sales Hiring 231

Tom Tunguz

MAY 23, 2022

Many startups face a strategic question early on of whether to create a new category. Barr lives hustle as strategy. Today, the company announced a $135m Series D to continue creating this category with relentless focus. From every startup I work with, I learn about the different ways of building a company.

Startup 222

Startup Customer Success Scaling Data 222

User Pilot

MARCH 14, 2024

We also cover: Customer analytics categories. There are four categories of customer analytics categories. This data isn’t just for top-level strategy. Customer analytics categories to track behavioral data There are four main categories for analyzing customer data: 1. You’re at the right place.

Customer Lifetime Value 102

Customer Lifetime Value SaaS Underperforming Technical Team Retention 102

Totango

JANUARY 3, 2024

We’re proud to have dedicated 13 years to cultivating best practices and expertise in the customer success software category. showcasing, in our opinion, our strength of strategy and product offering for enterprise businesses. These behaviors will guide our strategy as we continue to evolve and innovate.

Software Review 111

Software Review Scale Customer Success Innovation 111

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

Any startup in any reasonable category likely has dozens of competitors, and Altman believes the best strategy to compete in 2023 and beyond is multi-product. The customer journey applies to every software category, and it guides your roadmap with more holistic solutions for your customers. That’s unbelievable!

Scale 222

Scale Scaling Startup Sales Hiring 222

Stax

DECEMBER 20, 2023

While interchange fees are unavoidable, there are strategies to help minimize their impact, including choosing a cost-effective payment processor, implementing surcharging, and more. One such strategy includes implementing credit card surcharging to offset the cost of interchange fees. Request Quote What Are Interchange Fees?

Payment Services 167

Payment Services Merchant Services Payment Methods Payment Solutions 167

Mucker Capital

NOVEMBER 8, 2023

In this Mucker Growth session, Rosabel Tao from Fire & Bridge delves into the critical field of startup positioning strategy and its crucial role in shaping enduring brands. Defining the customer precisely is crucial to focus on the right approach, rather than using a scattergun strategy. How do we develop positioning?

Branding 98

Branding Startup Development Strategy 98

User Pilot

NOVEMBER 22, 2023

Pie charts reflect the proportional representation of different categories within a whole. Pie charts reflect the proportional representation of different categories within a whole. You can't do anything with data without data analytics charts. Its types include simple bar charts, grouped bar charts, and stacked bar charts.

Data 105

Data Scale Trends Engagement 105

Intercom, Inc.

SEPTEMBER 22, 2020

Brian also shares HubSpot’s strategy for creating an industry-defining category that helped more than 86,000 customers in over 120 countries move from unwelcome outbound marketing to permission-based inbound marketing. Coining a category that disrupted an industry. One thing was clear: it was time to throw the old playbook out.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Advertising Communication Branding 211

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 10, 2021

1,800 customers with ARR of $100,000 or more, a year-over-year increase of 66% from 1,082 You know this, but doing “all the integrations” can be a killer winning strategy. #7. Datadog may have revolutionized observability and other categories, but it didn’t change how you set up a sales team. To 75% growth.

Scale 314

Scale Cloud Enterprise Scaling 314

SaaStr

APRIL 1, 2022

Things that are a negative for me at least and are sort of in the “over-prepared” category: A written business plan. A too-thoughtful exit strategy. A deck is great. And a detailed operating plan in a Google Sheet or Excel is an A. Too many / wrong folks at pitch. Never bring someone that isn’t full-time.

Consulting 256

Consulting Engineering Investment Strategy 256

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 12, 2021

Freemium is not a marketing strategy. Just because your product is free, or has a free category, does not mean anyone will find it. Just because your product is free, or has a free category, does not mean anyone will find it. Freemium is a funnel management strategy and done right, later it can accelerate viral acquisition.

Sales Hiring 322

Sales Hiring Investment Acquisition Product Marketing 322

SaaStr

JULY 25, 2023

It provides updates on Microsoft’s products and strategies and fosters collaboration among partners. The SaaS Awards : The SaaS Awards is an annual awards program recognizing excellence and innovation in SaaS products and services across various categories.

ChatGPT 213

ChatGPT AWS SaaS CTO 213

SaaStr

OCTOBER 26, 2023

A Multi-Segment Strategy You have to be intentional in your strategy to solve for the long tail. But in other years, SMBs are jumping in the boat, so you get amazing growth long-term with a multi-segment strategy. When Greenhouse started, it was at a time when the market was growing up, and there weren’t any playbooks.

Sales Hiring 202

Sales Hiring AI SMB Scale 202